Boutros Boutros-Ghali — Profile, Rankings & Fame Trend

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

He led the United Nations through Rwanda, Bosnia, and Somalia — then became the only secretary-general in history blocked from a second term by an American veto.

Biography

About

Born to a Coptic Christian family in Cairo in 1922, Boutros-Ghali spent three decades teaching international law at Cairo University before Anwar Sadat pulled him into politics in 1977 as acting foreign minister. In that role he helped broker the Camp David Accords and the Egypt–Israel peace treaty. Elected UN secretary-general in 1991, he took office in 1992 and immediately faced the Somali Civil War, the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Rwandan genocide, and the Angolan Civil War — crises that brought accusations of inaction in Rwanda and Angola, and a faltering peacekeeping effort in Bosnia that…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

said28 Feb 2003

No, because Disneyland is not an independent state.

— As quoted in "War" (28 February 2003), Da Ali G Show

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

said28 Feb 2003

I am Boutros Boutros-Ghali; put down your guns and listen to Bob Marley.

— As quoted in "War" (28 February 2003), Da Ali G Show

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

said1999

It would be some time before I fully realized that the United States sees little need for diplomacy; power is enough. Only the weak rely on diplomacy.

— Unvanquished : A U.S. - U.N. Saga (1999), p. 198.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

said1997

I believe it will take time to find a solution to the problem. Thus we must have patience.

— On the Bosnian War, as quoted in Welcome to Sarajevo (1997)

Boutros Boutros-Ghali

said1996

There are signs that the system of collective security established in San Francisco nearly 50 years ago [at the founding of the UN] is finally beginning to work as conceived . . .

— Cited in the Awake! magazine 1996, 4/22; article: Is a World Without War Possible?

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